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Thursday, January 31, 2013

I Call for a Reboot of Resident Evil

For years, Capcom has divided the Resident Evil fan-base into two camps: those that hate Resident Evil 4, and those that hate those that hate Resident Evil 4.

Look at the franchise post-Resident Evil 4. Look at how Capcom has handled it. Resident Evil 5; Operation: Racoon City; Revelations; Resident Evil 4 and Code: Veronica X on XBLA and PSN; Resident Evil 6. Ports/updates aside, Revelations is the only game that actually garnished good reviews, less criticism, and is actually being ported to the 360, PS3, PC, and Wii U.

Simply put, Capcom is fucking up Resident Evil.

My personal concern started about two years ago, with an open letter to Capcom. In it, I simply told them to "please, for the love of fuck, treat Resident Evil with respect." Did they? Of course not! This is Capcom, afterall.

::if you honestly thought i expected them to listen to me, thor help you::

The franchise has been in dire straits lately. For starters, it all began with Resident Evil 4. It divided the fan-base, with your "zomg, wheres the zombies?!?" or "an action game?!?". People were pissed that it wasn't in the same style of yore. They, however, are the ones that can't handle change. It was still a great game, and, despite no zombies, it still had menacing foes; fuck, it was a great game, and the best thing that's happened to the franchise since it started.

Today, Kotaku ran a story about series producer Masachika Kawata saying it's due for a "slight reboot", before putting the series future on the shoulders of the aforementioned port of Resident Evil: Revelations:

"Once we see Revelations released on consoles, we'll be looking very carefully at how the title is received and what feedback we get...we'll definitely be looking at that as a signpost for where we need to be going next."

I can see that Revelations will be received fairly well; it currently holds an 82 on Metacritic, with 68 of 78 critics giving it good reviews. Considering that half of the game is akin to what the series was once known for (survival horror) and what it was praised for, while the other half is what it's mutated into (action shooter) and is what many critics were bemoaning about, it's hard to tell how Capcom will take it.

I'm afraid for those that hated - and still hate - Resident Evil 4, because, come reboot time, they're either going to love it, or fucking ragequit on Capcom. However, I'm more afraid for how Capcom is going to handle the reboot. Which direction will they take it? Will they go back, see how they drew fans in with the first one and start there? Will they see how they started to alienate fans with Resident Evil 4 and 5 and take that to heart?